Former Chairperson of the Electoral Commission and member of the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC), Charlotte Osei, says the zonal public engagements held across the country were the most important aspect of the Constitution Review process.
According to her, while expert thematic sessions provided technical depth, the zonal engagements offered a clearer picture of the lived experiences of ordinary Ghanaians and the issues that mattered most to them.
Speaking on Joy News on December 27, Charlotte Osei described the local engagements as eye opening.
“The expert thematic sessions were very illuminating even for us because we dealt with experts who has spent a lot of their lives working on these areas, whether it is Lands and Natural Resources, Local Government, Chieftancy.”
She explained, however, that the regional and zonal interactions stood out because of the diversity of concerns raised by citizens across different parts of the country.
“But the zonal engagements were mind blowing. Because you see, if you go to Takoradi, the issues that they’re going to raise there are very different from the issues in Bolgatanga or Sunyani. These are the lived experiences of the people,” she said.
Charlotte Osei noted that many of the concerns raised during the engagements were not strictly constitutional matters but reflected deeper governance and service delivery challenges at the local level.
“But we need to ask ourselves why are people using this fora to bring up issues with challenges with seeing their MPs, markets not being built, children out of school, issues around teenage pregnancy and find a way to address this without leaving the constitutional framework we’re supposed to redesign,” she stated.
She added that in that framework, whether at the local government, executive or judicial levels, they should find a way to address those issues.
In highlighting some of the revelations from the engagements, the former Electoral Commission Chair said she was personally shocked by what she learned about the judiciary.
“I have been a lawyer for 31 years I was shocked to find out that members of the lower bench are not part of the judiciary and are treated so differently. If we did not have those engagements and open the doors for people to come and speak,” she said.
Charlotte Osei said the environment created allowed a wide range of voices to be heard, including smaller political parties and ordinary citizens.
She explained that although not all submissions would necessarily be adopted, the opportunity to participate was part of political acceptability.
“That kind of environment for me, it was the biggest takeaway here,” she added.
“We had market women, we had students, we even had people come and speak as members of security services and say I’m speaking as an individual. We had Chiefs, we had Queen Mothers. I think that for me was the most important aspect of this.”
